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Mary Barber
Mary Barber (?''1685 - 1755?) was an Irish poet, who was a member of Swift's circle. Life Barber's parents are unknown. She married Rupert Barber (d. 1777?), a Dublin woollen draper, and had nine children, four of whom survived to adulthood. She wrote, in the preface to her ''Poems, that she wrote mainly in order to educate her children, but most commentators agree that she had a larger audience in view and was considerably engaged with intervening in wider social and political issues, as she did with "The Widow's Address" when she argued on behalf of the widow of an army officer. She is an example of the 18th-century phenomenon of the "untutored poet, or 'natural genius'": an artist of unprepossessing background who achieved the patronage of literary or aristocratic notables.Christopher Fanning, "The Voices of the Dependent Poet: the case of Mary Barber," Women's Writing 8.1 (2001): 81. Swift named her as part of his "triumfeminate," along with poet and scholar Constantia Grierson and literary critic Elizabeth Sican, and maintained that she was a preeminent poet – "the best Poetess of both Kingdoms"Swift, 1733, The correspondence of Jonathan Swift, ed. H. Williams, 5 vols. (1963–5), cite. Lonsdale 119; Coleborne. – though this assessment was not universally shared ,and she has only recently garnered much critical attention. She moved into his circle and knew Laetitia Pilkington, who later became her harshest critic, Mary Delany, and poets Thomas Tickell, and Elizabeth Rowe. Swift's patronage was a substantial support to Barber's career and her Poems on several occasions (1734) was successful. The subscription list for the volume was almost "without precedent for its resplendent length and illustrious contents, and it was moreover remarkable given Barber's otherwise pedestrian social standing as an ailing Irish housewife." Adam Budd, "'Merit in distress': The Troubled Success of Mary Barber," The Review of English Studies 53.210 (2002):204-227 (204). There were over nine hundred subscribers including various aristocrats and a number of literary luminaries, notably Pope, Arbuthnot, Gay, Walpole, and of course Swift himself. She did not, however, achieve financial stability until at her request and in order to alleviate her financial distress, Swift gave her the English rights to his Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation (1738). Her health declined after the publication of her Poems and subsequent writing was sparse. She did publish some verses about the gout, from which she suffered for over two decades, in the Gentleman's Magazine in 1737. She died in or around 1755. Publications *''Apollo's Edict''. Dublin: 1725. *"The Widow's Address" (Dublin, 1725) *''A Tale Being an Addition to Mr. Gay's Fables''. Dublin: S. Powell, for George Ewing, 1728. *''Tunbrigialia, or, Tunbridge Miscellanies, for the Year 1730'' (contributor). *''Poems on Several Occasions''. London: C. Rivington, 1734, 1735, 1736. *''Poems by Eminent Ladies'' (contributor, 1755). See also * List of Irish poets References *Coleborne, Bryan. “Barber, Mary (c.1685–1755).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. 1 Apr. 2007. *Fanning, Christopher. "The Voices of the Dependent Poet: the case of Mary Barber." Women's Writing 8.1 (2001): 81-97. *Lonsdale, Roger ed. "Mary Barber." Eighteenth-Century Women Poets. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. 118-129. Notes External links ;Poems *"By a Person of Quality" * Selected Poetry of Mary Barber (ca. 1685-1755) (3 poems) at Representative Poetry Online. * Mary Barber at the Poetry Foundation. * Mary Barber at PoemHunter (120 poems). ;Books * Mary Barber at the Online Books Page. ;About Category:1680s births Category:1750s deaths Category:Irish poets Category:Irish writers Category:Irish women poets Category:Irish women writers Category:18th-century Irish people Category:18th-century women writers Category:Women poets Category:18th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets